USPS - Slow, and seems to be getting worse
 

Seems like USPS is coming to a slow halt these days. Priority Mail boxes are taking me 4 or 5 days to get to where they need to be. Even in April-May wasn't this bad. I've never had the PO tell me 4 days for a priority mail box going within the same time zone. Realize COVID issues but seems like things are really grinding to a halt. Send a priority mail box NJ-MI on an ebay sale and took 5 days. Perhaps a little work slow down in effect in response to the growing political pressures on USPS?

Not sure if it’s political, covid, summertime slowdown or what, but i agree. Most things I’ve received in the last few weeks have taken about a week from time of purchase to arrival.

Priority mail Florida to Texas 2 1/2 days

I did read somewhere that USPS has been experiencing holiday like mail since late March. They usually hire holiday help during the holidays, but didn't this summer. I expect some slowness.

I've had some items 1-2 days slow, but most arrive very timely. Did have a bubble mailer from Canada get stuck in Chicago for almost 3 weeks and a stamped envelope take 10 days GA to AR. Not bad for over 500 packages sent/received since March.

Everything has made it though.

haven't had one problem

I mail out between 5-10 items on average a week of mostly my newer stuff I am selling. I agree that the mail has been taking longer. I send most with 1st class tracking but have maybe one on average that goes out priority mail.

My priority mail has taken longer, have a few arrive in 3 days, but mostly 5-6 business days. I had a couple that took 10 days.

Now my 1st class mail mostly 2-3 days befoe the virus on average, with a few exceptions of course. Now they are mostly 3-5 days, but with a few going around 6-8 and a couple going longer.

usps
 

Most of my mail is still being delivered in a timely manner, but I expect major slowdowns.

The instructions from the new Postmaster General (who has no Postal experience) is that absolutely no overtime will be used by anyone. If a carrier is out on the street and they can't get done in 8 hours, they bring the mail back for delivery the next day. That includes packages. If the truck from the processing plant is supposed to leave the plant at 4:30 am to deliver to the local Post Offices, the truck has to leave on time, even if it means letting mail sit on the dock and hopefully, it will go out the next day.

The tough thing about the no overtime rule is that many of the offices are understaffed. Not enough carriers, clerks, mail processors, etc. to go around, and, in the Post Office the hiring and training process can take months. Covid is making the situation even worse.

Locally, I am seeing some of my packages arrive at the plant in Madison at 2:30 in the morning, and normally, they would be on the truck leaving for my Post Office when it leaves at 4:30. Now, the packages are sitting in Madison for 1 or 2 days before they are sent out to the local Post Offices. This is going to create a big bottle neck in the processing centers, and they were having major problems already.

In spite of all of this, I can't complain about the service that I have been receiving.

What Rick said is 100% correct. The new Postmaster General is not helping.

I received my "Mile High Auction Catalog" in the mail July 6th. The auction closed May 14th ! I received another auction house catalog on Jul 19th and the auction ended the first week in July. Paying bills by mail have been crazy, the mail is arriving after the due date and they want to change late fees and penalities.

I ordered a pretty small tabletop art book July 6 on eBay and supposedly was mailed July 8. Not here yet. Sheesh. What did they mail it, 9th class mail.

Not infrequently I get catalogs or brochures for auctions after they've closed.

It seems like certain parts of the country are worse. I ordered 2 different items from Michigan and both times, it took 6 days to Jersey by Priority Mail. My other deliveries seem unaffected or maybe an extra day at most.

All the things that I've been ordering haven been showing up on time for the most part. The few things that I've ordered that have showed up late have only been by a day or so. The longest I've had to wait for something to show up has been about 7 or 8 days. This week has been the first week where I've had more than one thing show up late and even then it's only going to be by a day or so. All the deliveries that I've had show up late have been Texas to Virginia so maybe that has something to do with it.

USPS mail delivery
 

No issues whatsoever in SW Ohio, quick and reliable. Trent King

No issues here either in southwest Pennsylvania, other than the occasional package to or from Canada. Those are apparently still a nightmare, regardless of where you are in the US

I ordered something from China and it's been 2 months so far. Still waiting.

I think it's being shipped from Mars.

A number of shipments for me have been slow. Something that was shipped 2-day priority mail took 4 days, and I am currently waiting for a card from Arizona (to NJ) that was mailed on July 15. Original delivery date was listed as July 20, but since July 19 just says In Transit, Arriving Late.

I has been great for me the last 2 weeks. Bought and sold a few thing with fellow members and eBay. Everything has been on time unlike the previous 2 months. One package was mailed on a Saturday on the east coast and I got it Monday in the upper mid-west.

Priority package from Ohio to CT in two days. No problems here..

Priority Mail from Illinois to upstate New York - less than 800 miles.
Shipped July 3, no tracking information since July 7. Eighteen days
so far. USPS says Covid is causing delays.

Long Island NY
 

no issues so far - lots of packages in and out including international......please, please, please let it stay that way!

I had a package, paid for in full, which USPS butchered all sorts of ways including never actually getting me the package.

Seller provided all documentation. USPS blew it.

Seller to his credit is sending me replacement material to help make up for my loss.

Since Seller is going above and beyond no need to name him other than to say I appreciate the back up agreement we came up with to help him and me.

That was sent to my office, from here on in stuff is going to my home.

Rich

Rich, which service from usps did you have the issue with ?

I do have a question as my wife and I frequently joke that someone must be getting huge amounts of overtime as our local PO is delivering packages on a Sunday with Amazon packages appearing the most frequent Sunday deliveries. Are those workers getting overtime or Sunday shift differential or is that just extra workers who are doing package delivery only and getting paid straight time and likely working perhaps only on Sundays?

Amazon
 

Many of these workers are hired to deliver packages on Saturday and Sunday. I have been retired for 3 years, but in the past, full time workers were not allowed to deliver Amazon on Sundays. Only part timers were used. Then, they hired people especially for Amazon deliveries. The USPS would never admit it, but Amazon has been bad for the Postal Service and because of Amazon's discounts, I believe the Po is losing money by delivering Amazon.

One although they know exactly where my office was, the USPS said no known address.

Two days later, they did deliver the package -- left it outside the locked building in what is basically an outdoor shopping mall where anyone could and did walk off with said package.

Terrible work by USPS here.

I shipped a package to Japan and they got it in a week! I ordered something from China on accident and thought it was going to take forever and I got it in a week because they used DHL. My stateside stuff is taking an extra couple days but the worst is US/Canada shipping. It’s gotten to the point where I refuse Canadian transactions for now.


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My son is a postmaster in a small post office in Wisconsin. He visited last week and I asked him about this. They are struggling with the no overtime rule.
He also confirmed about packages being left in the processing center because when it is time to leave, the employees leave and what is on the line is left until the next day. However, Amazon is in the process of setting up delivery of their own packages so this will ease the burden of the P.O., however, it also will be a big lose of revenue.

I'm mailing 20-30 items per week, and I've only had one problem recently, that was also in Michigan. Seems to have sat in Detroit for about 2-3 weeks, but did arrive.

Michigan - specifically southern Michigan - seems to be where some packages go to sit for a month or more with the USPS. I've had 2 packages get "lost" in southern Michigan for more than 5 weeks and one package from the Detroit area take more than 4 weeks to get to me. Ironically, I sent a big ticket card (more than $6,500) out to California last month and it arrived in 2 days. Go figure!

That's really odd... I've had absolutely no problems receiving packages on time and even early in Canada from US locations.

Hmm, as the 3rd last house on the longest route in my town, I'm envisioning many days without any mail delivery. Bummer!!

Media mail, maybe

It's pretty glaring right now. As you said worse than in March. I began to notice it within the last month. I've had two ebay purchases no show. One was USPS the other UPS. Tracking just stopped at the end of June and beginning of July. I've always known USPS customer service is non-existent, but UPS is equally useless now. When you call they flat out tell you speaking to a human is not an option. They must all be in India which is in total lockdown. Frustrating because that package made it all the way to my city and just stopped. I'm waiting for two other USPS packages now that haven't changed status since July 15.

I've noticed packages going through the middle of the country, Illinois in particular, seem to be having problems as well. I had one that went in circles for a week before breaking free from the vortex and heading to me. Had another that seemed to be walking through the state for delivery.

I've never had a bad experience with the USPS until the past couple of months. A fairly important document I sent was never delivered, and I didn't receive an eBay item sent to me from a seller I trust.

Past few months have been rough, I detailed a terrible experience with them in two threads. Packages in general have been coming a little late. Their overworked, and understaffed,in my opinion. The Government isn't doing them any favors either and I certainly don't think the new Post Master General is going to help either.

I am in Japan and the postal system here won’t accept any mail going to the US. The problem is not on Japan Post’s end, they are accepting mail to almost all other developed countries, it is specifically on the US end. Its weird. I can send stuff to Canada or even Mexico, but not to the US. Something is wrong.

I am still having great luck with the PO. Bought a Wade Boggs bat a few days ago with expected delivery Saturday. Just looked and it is out for delivery and I should have it in hand within the hour.:)

I have had quite a few issues. One extremely impatient buyer (guy is certifiably nuts, actually--opened a "Haven't Recieved my item" claim on the 11th day after purchase (despite contacting me for 4 days prior and getting responses and tracking info). That said, I did receive this information and have followed up with my local PO as to its accuracy and was told "unfortunately, there have been some issues. Those numbers are a bit high, but definitely some issues."

Here's my crazy buyer's note through eBay--be mindful this was just 7 days after the auction closed...so he was more than a little aggressive...

Hi Phil,

Following our conversation this morning I received the following information from the USPS the 8 listed cities below have encountered a 69% delivery problem as of 07/26/2020 with first class mail & packages. Most have been receiving 200,000 pieces of mail daily and have been storing them in trailers, the back-flow has caused numinous problems for all customers. Changes by the President which began last week have impacted the already financial problems of the USPS. If this problem continues, the entire postal system will collapse. I’m not happy, after spending several hundred dollars; I have no idea when or even if my package will be delivered. I’m sure you’ll be hearing from other customers whose mail travels through these states.......Ron

Chicago NDC
Detroit NDC
New Jersey NDC
St Paul, MN NDC
Texas NDC
Tenn NDC
California NDC
Memphis NDC

Japan
 

The JapanPost website shows that parcel delivery is suspended to 141 countries, including the U.S. They are accepting letter mail to the US and surface mail, but that is all at this time.

My situation wasn't USPS but UPS which occurred this past Tues.

I had a large box of cards arriving, including unopened loose packs and boxes. I'm working from home so I used the UPS function to track where the truck actually was....all day.

I don't live in a big city and I watched the driver zig zag, backtrack, go out into the country then back into town all day. On three different occasions he was within a 30 second drive of my house during the day and did not deliver. He finally stopped after 5!

When I did get the box it looked like it had gone 10 rounds with Tyson. Thankfully the packaging was good so the boxes were not damaged, but I took pics before opening...just in case.

I can only imagine the amount of time that would have been saved if he would have had a correctly mapped out delivery schedule. Best guess is he would have shaved off a few hrs at least.

Ups
 

UPS has a GPS system that tells the drivers which package to deliver next. I'm sure the driver knows that it was stupid to drive by your house so many times, but he/she doesn't have a choice except to follow that route that is determined by the GPS system. The Post Office put one of these systems in place a few years ago, and it was a mess. It had carriers driving the wrong way on a one way street, among other crazy things.

My tale of woe.....

2 day priority flat rate box....

July 18, 2020, 11:38 am
Departed Post Office
DARIEN, WI 53114

July 22, 2020
In Transit to Next Facility

July 29, 2020, 2:30 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
PALATINE IL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

I had to call on the 28th to see what is happening with this card as it is a $500 card, Paypal is holding my funds until it is delivered and there was zero movement for ten days. And now we are back to waiting.

Mail
 

I'm an airline pilot, and I can tell you we're operating at about 25% capacity as far as flights go. Every time I do a walk around before a flight they are loading mail, always have been. The USPS doesn't have it's own planes, so they just use the space on passenger airlines, as it's available, or as they contract. Anyway, with the cut in flight schedules we're experiencing, I would expect it to hurt them as well. No data to back that up, other than the ol' eyeball.

Cheers,
Geno

My USPS story not baseball related
 

Recently( three weeks ago) ordered some fishing clothes from a vendor just outside of New Orleans. I live about 80 miles away in Baton Rouge. I got a tracking number from the vendor. Well the item went to the New Orleans airport the next day and flew to Miami, Fla. My items spent 5 days in Miami before getting on a plane to Baton Rouge. Took over 10 days to go 80 miles.

I'm currently waiting on 11 packages. That's right, 11. 4 of them haven't been scanned since July 20, another July 21. That's 10 days gone by without any movement. It wouldn't be so bad if they were low $$ cards. But one was a $300 purse and another was a $200 wallet. Another was an $80 Nintendo (I sold that one). So I'm really starting to get nervous. I know I'm going to be covered. I want to contact the seller and let them know, but I know it's not their fault and they should've be held responsible.

In fact, the Nintendo was mailed July 16 and hasn't moved sine the 19th. The buyer has contacted me and wants a refund. So I'm not sure I should refund with it still in transit (I have to answer the open request by tomorrow, so not sure how to answer).

I did take the #s up to the PO today to see if they could shed some light, and they said there's nothing they could do. He said things were slow right now because of the Covid and postal employees getting sick. He did say that if they haven't moved within the next week, then I should file a claim with the PO to get insurance involved.

I would not wait another week, I would file now as a CYA.
It probably not make a difference in movement but might make a difference in refunds.

The buyer
 

..

You may want to calm down your rightfully-anxious buyer by keeping him up to date on your talks with USPO .....not everyone realizes what is going on out in the real world....people who still play "Nintendo" generally don't read the newspapers all that much....

..

Maybe I was a bit wrong earlier. First Class packages are now taking 5-10 days. I'm currently waiting for a Priority package the PO has had for 8 days and arrived in my city 3 days ago.

Still believe the USPS is lacking sufficient staffing levels to handle the workload. Hopefully the USPS can survive, I do not want to pay UPS/FedEx rates for shipping.

Sorry to be the guy who isn't having any issues.

I actually received a box today that was tracking to arrive tomorrow...

That's why he is called, Doug " I am Sorry About That, But Not Too Sorry " Goodman

Your Country Needs You :
 

..You have just been volunteered to supervise the mail-in voting for the upcoming election ; your office is at the main entrance of any cemetery in Philadelphia.

..

So you're saying the best way to avoid the virus may be to play Nintendo?

:D

And will this help "Voting-by-Mail"?

I dropped by the PO yesterday with the 3 tracking #s for the purse, wallet and Nintendo. I wrote down the number, where they were last tracked and the date they were last tracked. He looked everything up, and he said he was finding the same thing.

He said there was nothing I could do right now. He said I should wait another week. Then if it doesn't show up (or show any signs of movement), he said I should file with the insurance. Problem is seller of purse and wallet only shipped priority with that insurance ($50), while I shipped Nintendo priority (with $50 insurance only). So I'm going to be out $40 for the Nintendo, $250 on the purse and $150 on the wallet.

This entire situation stinks. But I have nothing to do but wait.

That's too bad everyone can't just give it some extra time with all that is going on. Best of luck.:)

Clearly everything that is going on is a deliberate attempt to sabotage voting by mail. In a pandemic.

Seems to be getting.worse.

Mail being misdirected, wrong post offices, back to hub etc.


That's just this week!

I'm a bit slow, so your comment is going straight over my head.

If we assume for the sake of conversation that there are currently two types of people in this country, I'm not sure if you're wearing a MAGA or a BLM shirt...

Doug "I find it interesting that our president voted by mail" Goodman

Talked to my mail lady today. I asked her if the mandatory no-overtime thing is true, she said it is, but hasn't hit OH yet. She said it started in NC, and people there are NOT happy. Word is it's coming our way. According to her, today in my town there were a couple open routes (understaffed to begin, sick call-ins.) So parts of each route were split up among a bunch of other drivers. When this kicks, in, those routes will just not be delivered those days. I need to make sure to buy her lots of vitamin C this winter so she stays healthy and I get my mail!

She told me her personal opinion, with no more actual knowledge than anyone off the street: she believes there is a big push to make the PO tank so that 1) mail voting doesn't happen and 2) the push to privatize becomes huge. Again, this is HER PERSONAL OPINION, with no facts to support it.

I'd just be patient with the Post Office. In my area in northern California, postal workers are coming down with coronavirus, and one recently passed away (Link). We should probably be having delivery folks work less, not more. These "essential" workers are really getting screwed during the pandemic.

I get many packages daily. Things are running about a day or two longer than usual. Even had it been 2-4 days in these circumstances I surely wouldn’t have felt the need to start a post about it. But then again some guys seem compelled to constantly start posts bitching about something.

I just had an item arrive that I purchased on eBay that took 3 weeks to arrive. I thought it was a goner.

I also think it’s ridiculous that in the middle of a pandemic the head of the USPS decides to cut overtime and tighten the belt. The government is throwing money at everything and everyone right now to keep the economy a float. Why make an essential service that people need now more than ever worse? This makes absolutely no sense. Just don’t get it.

Thanks Glyn for stating what I'm sure many here are thinking... myself included.

Since I posted every leading newspapers and news channel has been running stories about how slow the post office is and wtf is going on. But I guess it’s just a phenomena of impatient Net 54 members. You put us in our place!!

Heather Cox Richardson has done some good long-form journalism on exactly this topic. I'd post the most relevant excerpts here, but since it gets into the specific political causes of the current state of the USPS it might violate board policy. Anyway, it's thorough and current if you want to know the details of what happened. https://heathercoxrichardson.substac...p/july-31-2020

Here is an update on the movement of my 2 day priority mail flat rate package:

July 31, 2020, 12:25 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
ELK GROVE VILLAGE IL DISTRIBUTION CENTER
Your item arrived at our ELK GROVE VILLAGE IL DISTRIBUTION CENTER origin facility on July 31, 2020 at 12:25 am. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

July 30, 2020
In Transit to Next Facility

July 29, 2020, 4:23 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
PALATINE IL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

July 29, 2020, 2:30 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
PALATINE IL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

July 18, 2020, 11:38 am
Departed Post Office
DARIEN, WI 53114

July 18, 2020, 11:13 am
USPS in possession of item
DARIEN, WI 53114


Palatine to Elk Grove Village is a ten mile trip.

Slowdown or not I cannot understand how this package was lost for 11 days, then found and being shuttled between two post office distribution centers that are ten miles apart for three days and still not making it's way towards it's ultimate destination in Pennsylvania. Somebody is dropping the ball on these shipments. I cannot help but wonder if I just sent the card first class and not priority if it would have arrived already.

There's no way of telling but it's very possible. It's just a complete crapshoot right now, whether the parcel is sent priority, first class, parcel post or otherwise. None are a sure thing right now, in terms of on-time delivery.

But even so, I think the USPS is hanging in pretty well, considering the obstacles.

Mail
 

I have had much better luck mailing First Class parcels compared to Priority. It seems that the Priority gets backed up in the processing plants, where the First Class seems to flow a little faster.

I was expecting a package that was mailed with tracking. According to the Tracking # search function on usps.com it was scanned as delivered to my PO Box @ 11:01 today. My mail was there but no package.

I am hoping it was put in a neighbor's slot by mistake and they will bring it to me.

Not much recourse with the sender if it shows as Delivered.

Would your package fit in your PO box? If not, it could be it was scanned but nobody had time to write up the peach colored slip to put in your box.

It's tough to be patient with them when dealing with eBay. Just an update to my post...

the buyer escalated his claim yesterday, but I had nothing to add. I had already added tracking, and i had sent 3 messages to the buyer explaining the situation with the USPS. He never once responded to any of my messages, escalated the claim and won.

eBay refunded the buyer despite the item still being in transit from me to him. It really, really sucks. Now I am out the item and the money. I'm guessing once item arrives, the buyer isn't going to let me know and ship it back.

In my experience eBay will refund you if you can prove the item was delivered after the case closed. Joe

The mail in north Texas is hit and miss. Mostly hit, some miss. Really no rhyme or reason. Most everything mailed in the north Texas area goes through Coppell, and we've had a check that we mailed on July 19 still not arrive, whereas the replacement check we mailed on July 24 arrived safely on July 31. Priority mail is a joke; on the USPS website, it says due to COVID-19 that delays are expected EXCEPT priority which is normal, but I mailed a priority package 2-day on a Friday for Monday delivery. Took 8 days....

Anyone have issues this week with items being delivered, but tracking states "awaiting delivery scan?" I have seen this both as a buyer and a seller, in wide ranging parts of the country.

Yes. I am down to two cards to finish my 1970 Topps set and I have one of those "in transit" from Greg Morris Cards.

PO
 

Did you go into the Post Office and ask about it?

USPS is always slowest when I am receiving something and fastest at delivering any checks I might send out. :confused:

LOL, +1

or in a trade there card always gets to me on time and mine will get stuck someplace for a extra day, week, or even a month. I would much rather have to wait than the other person on getting the card(s).

Top this...

PS...It still hasn't arrived.